Facing angry shareholders, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg attempted to lessen the tension by admitting that the company stock price was frustrating, but that didn't stop the barrage of questions at the social network's first annual shareholders meeting.
With shares about 40 percent less than its initial public offering last year, Zuckerberg had to expect some negative feelings from the roomful of investors.
"We're disappointed with the performance of the stock over the last year," Zuckerberg told the crowd. "We expect there's going to be fluctuations."
He also defended Facebook's business model, recent decisions and its strength in mobile ads -- which now makes up 30 percent of sales, according to the Wall Street Journal. "Nothing in that has made me think that the fundamental strategy is wrong," he said.
Shareholders used words like "disaster" and "invested blindly" to describe their feelings at the microphone and pressed executives for details on how they would overcome the stock fluctuations.
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David Ebersman, Facebook's chief financial officer, replied, "I wish I had a crystal ball."
Zuckerberg reiterated his message by telling investors he cared about making money and that he's actively working to come up with new revenue streams. He also used the discussion to state Facebook does not "work directly with the NSA or any other government program" to give up user data.
While some say that shareholders voting to approve the management agenda and board members as a positive, it's a rare shareholders meeting that kicks out executives. Instead, it seems as if shareholders are willing to wait and see if Zuckerberg's promises pan out before making any huge decisions.
